What a beautiful post, SubC. Warmed my heart in every way.

Good morning!

Happy Candlemas CM!

Tatoulia, I think I am the only vegetarian in our group?

Lila, how are you today? I'm glad Totsdad can fix your car!

Tatoulia, it's the finishing the tasks that always gets me too.

Bean was very happy to be home yesterday, and I was very happy to get to hold Buddy! He is really a different baby now. He has a follow up appointment on Valentine's Day to check his healing, and then he will be able to visit my house with Bean!

I thought I would get a lot more sleep last night, but I slept terribly.

I went by the library after the teacher workshop, joined the winter reading challenge, and checked out sone books. Last night I stayed up until nearly 11 reading one of them. I read the whole book. Then when I did go to bed, I woke up over and over again. I finally got up at 5:30. Maybe I will be able to catch up on sleep tonight.

The workshop was delightful yesterday. Very inspirational. I got some work done and socialized with adults. I got to talk with a fellow I still think of as "a lovely young man" even though he is well into in his 40's now. He went to school with Dh cousin back when we were adults with kids and they were boys with dreams. Both of them have become gifted artists and teachers, but Kirk is one of the kindest, most compassionate people I know and it was an interesting experience to tell him about my month. The care and concern just flowed across his face and when I said "couldn't go home because his brother had just had major lung surgery" he actually teared up. After awhile you just start accepting things as normal, and it was a relief to have someone acknowledge that no, this was not normal. This was awful.

I brought home three pieces of finished work from my fall class, two pieces of unfinished work from my fall class, four pieces of unfinished work from the workshop, a handmade tool from the workshop, literature, a cork coaster, two pens, two really nice brushes, and three containers of consumable surface finishing materials. I have no idea how to track all of that. I've been keeping track of the pottery I make separately and somewhat loosely, and I feel like other than the brushes, it is all ephemera. I don't count pens out when they run out of ink and I drop them in the recycling box at school..

This morning is the brunch, and then I have been invited to come back to Bean's house to spend time with the boys, and then I will come home and get my house in order for the week.

I would love to make you a casserole! I cannot remember if you are vegetarian. In any event, I'll make you something comforting with no meat.

I had soup for dinner, which I found very comforting. It was from a can but did the trick.

I am happy with how my house is looking. I have a new mental trick I am playing. I tend to do things halfway or three quarters of the way. I'm forcing myself to complete the tasks. For example, getting the dishes in the dishwasher but leaving a random thing that I'll do later. What is wrong with me? So I'm finishing the tasks and I feel good. I swept up before friend came last night and that felt good, too. I changed my sheets today because I canceled the cleaners this week because I was sick and I don't want to wait til they are here for clean sheets. So as I was putting the cleaners sheets on and making my bed, I started to walk away before putting the pillowcases on, thinking I could do later. WHAT? An extra 60 seconds and the bed was made and looking tidy.

So that's my new battle for myself. Feeling strong.

I did zero today btw. But I'll get outside tmr. I've been cooped up all week and my lungs feel good enough to be in the cold. I did some online shopping which I now have to return everything. That was a stupid exercise.

hi SubC, thank you for the good thoughts. It is fun having littles around, but a lot of work! Enjoy your sleep. Hi to you too Tatoulia. I am feeling a bit better today. TotsDad is working on my car and found and additional problem but he things he has that fixed as well. I probably will take it for an oil change at the dealership and ask them to double check that nothing else is wrong.

I would like a newer car, one that is reliable. I am asking God to provide whatever I need. I am happy with whatever.

I did a bit of cleanup and laundry. Am spending time with my dog and and going to enjoy my days at home. There is a lot I would like to do, but little energy to do it.

Actually I would like someone to make me a nice comforting casserole for dinner.

Oh Lila, I have been worried about your dog! I'm so sorry you are dealing with these struggles.

I am still post- Covid tired with a throat clearing cough. I nearly lost my voice at school yesterday, but it was good to be back.

Bean enjoyed his last evening with us and then got a bit overwhelmed at bedtime. He was teary and didn't want to go to bed. Change is overwhelming for him. He told me he will come back "Sunday night" but I told him Mommy and Daddy want to keep him longer than that because they miss him, and Buddy misses him. (And also, Grammie is planning to go to bed early Sunday night and sleep late!) We are going to skip the Monday visit this week, but I'm going to find some time to go by their house and see Buddy.

It actually feels strange that I will not be eating dinner before 6:00 tonight, and my evening won't include an hour of pajamas, tooth brushing, potty trips, stories, and cuddles.

This morning I need to gather up the many things that need to go home with Bean, and then this evening I will tidy away all the toys we have just left out everywhere.

My director sent me my proposed schedule for next year (I gave her a lot of leeway in what classes I would teach -I told her to just use me in whatever slots she needed as long as it was two full days) I'm going to be teaching mostly elementary/middle school Wednesdays and Fridays. It's a total of 10.5 hours. This year I have 11.5 hours, but it is spread out over three days with an extra lunch and two more hours of commute. I'll probably end up with a roomate again because I am only teaching two days.

Poor Lila! Poor doggie! I'm so sorry you have been going through this and now the car is on the Fritz! I am thinking about you! Sending warm wishes.

Subc I have to laugh at "pinnacle of fine dining". I could go for a chili dog right now! We used to love Howard Johnson's when I was a kid.

Friend came over, put the Christmas stuff into the closet, and I convinced her to take all of my lovely glass ornaments. She packed them in a box but it is pouring rain so she'll get them one night next week. Giant weight off of my shoulders. They are so beautiful and so perfect, but I will never be able to have a tree while I have cats.

So I am feeling better. I spent an hour cleaning up before she got here so I feel significantly less chaotic. Still more to go but an excellent start.

hello friends. I can't believe I have not been here in three weeks. I have had a terrible time. My dog almost died after surgery and has been in and out of vet ICU for 3 weeks. It has been a nightmare. Now my car is broken down and I've been not feeling well. My dog is going to need re-checks as well so now I am stressed out trying to get my car fixed in case he needs to go in urgently. The hospital he was in that saved him in a couple hours away. The local hospital was basically ready to give up and let him die. I am kind of traumatized. But, I am trying to get it together and go back to work and start cleaning up my house which is a mess.

I am glad Buddy's surgery went well. What a relief. I'm sorry you've been sick, SubC... I read the other posts also and want to say hi, Tatoulia, CM... my brain is running on fumes.

Lol Tatoulia - I think your idea of mess and chaos is likely fairly tame. Borrow a 4 year old some time.

We are in the home stretch. Today we stay home together, Dh has a guitar lesson after work, so he will be home late (after bedtime)

Tomorrow we go to school (yay school!) and Dh says we can all go out to Skyline to celebrate for dinner (Bean is very excited about that - Skyline is his pinnacle of dining. - if you have never heard of it, try google. "Skyline Chili", remember, he's four.)

Saturday morning we get up, get in the car (no breakfast required - light buffet available at teacher workshop, no one will begrudge a 4 y.o. A muffin) drive down to the pottery studio, and mommy whisks him away while I spend the day at the pottery studio learning fun new lesson plan ideas with other teachers. Objects will probably come home.

Sunday I may go back to the studio for the monthly coffee and clay social. The theme for February (they skipped January) is "setting and keeping goals and resolutions in your clay practice"

Good to hear you have eggs! I am so worried about the bird flu and glad you are keeping the chickens safe and toasty!

I do hope you have strength to work and go to your pottery class!

I am much improved today. Thank goodness. My house is a terrible mess.i cannot keep living like this. You would all find it very messy. It's terrible. Chaotic. I think I'll see if I can make myself some dinner and determine if I have what it takes to get my place cleaned up. I canceled the cleaners this week because she's I cannot get them sick.they'd probably be okay if they came on Friday but I have an electrician coming on Friday. I need some outlets replaced.

So I will endeavor to be productive and I'll get back to you to record my progress.

Hello CM and Lila and Road!

Well, we aren't making it to school today. His cough was just too bad for my conscience yesterday. I got subs.

I am planning to take him to school on Friday even if he is coughing, because the 2024 guidelines say ten days (when I looked them up, they are now labelled as an historical document no longer in force - there are no new guidelines) - my boss says "24 hours fever free and whenever you feel better" and kids are coughing and sneezing all over school all winter. I'm hoping he can go home Saturday.

I have an all day pottery workshop for teachers on Saturday and Dh has promised to stay home with Bean if his parents aren't ready for his return.

My appetite has mostly come back, but my weight has stabilized, which is good. I'd like to hang on to the weight loss. (I'd like to build on the weight loss) my energy level still isn't fully back though.

A friend came over last night and I gave her a bunch of eggs. The chickens and ducks have been laying because the heat lamp was on so much. She said the local grocery store was out. I told Dh we are rich because we have poultry.

No cleaning up or clearing out projects happening, although Bean is very slowly using up drawing paper - at the rate he works, I clearly have enough drawing paper to last his entire childhood.

Glad to hear everyone's on the mend, SubC! So great that the chickens can eat the seeds!

I continue to be sick. Now the coughing is accompanied by head stuffiness, blocked ear, runny nose. Progress, I tell myself. I'm not hungry but had some soup.

Good morning!

Bean is finally sleeping in today. Hopefully it means he has turned the corner and we will both be able to go back to school on Wednesday.

Yesterday I went through my seed box and cleared out all the empty packets and everything too old to plant (there wasn't too much, mostly things that come in packets much too big for my garden. and it all went to the chickens. They like seeds.)

I'm going to try to put in my garden order today. I made a list of things I want- without looking at the catalogues. Hopefully that will keep me from over ordering too much.

In my bags were, to the best of my recollection, a fleece (I have a new one from my company and I do not need two), some summer tops that weren't doing me any favors, my lunch plates, two champagne flutes that were part of a holiday gift from a vendor (I gave away the champagne), a couple of Christmas things from years gone by that I do not need, and I cleaned out my winter scarf and hat drawer. So stuff that I'm not using. I cannot remember what else but all pretty decent stuff. Some old perfume bottles of my mother's, which I put in a ziplock hoping that someone collects old perfume bottles.

I packaged up these things a while ago. I have two pair of boots that I should've taken but I forgot. Snow boots in very good condition. Ones I used to wear to work back when I wore a skirt or dress every single day. The pandemic changed that for me. Stuff that I just don't need anymore. There's always something.

I have not yet packaged up the part of mom's china that I'm getting rid of. That needs to go to a different donation center.

So yes, I too feel amazed that there's always more but such is life I miss Lila and Road and Tillie and LR and Dianne and Diane and bitsy. So many. I'm sure I missed a few.

Good morning.

Wonder how Lila is doing?

Somehow I feel better that everyone else has their Christmas decorations out too. Although Tatoulia has two shoeboxes and I have seven bins.

Day ten. Supposedly according to the most recent wisdom I found, I am no longer contagious, but I still have a stuffy nose and a cough. And I still woke up with a nasty "sick" taste in my mouth.

I did get my appetite back yesterday so that my weight bounced back up a bit.

Bean's cough sounds horrible. Dh ran out to the pharmacy and got him a cough suppressant/decongestant/acetaminophen for ages 4 and up yesterday. I think it helps a little.

CM, I think your yarn plan is good. And as someone else who is having a "zombie January" I am impressed with any forward motion.

I've actually been feeling an urge to knit lately - but not enough to get out a project. My next things I need to do are lesson plans for Wednesday, garden planning and seed orders, and helping Bean make valentines for his class for after he returns to school. We definitely have plenty of supplies.

Tatoulia, sometimes I can't believe that you are still taking bags to goodwill. But as I have been noticing things that come in the last year, I guess taking things to goodwill is actually an ongoing condition of life.

I'm sorry you are still sick, SubC.

Cm that's a good idea for using up the yarn! Everyone wins!

I'm doing laundry tonight. A quilt and now my sheets. I have two cat blankets that also need attention. Might as well get it all out of the way.

I do have a car for tmr afternoon and I'll feel great getting my two bags to goodwill. I'm trying to figure out if it would be possible to get a third bag out.

CM my Christmas stuff is still on display. Some of it has been put away but some remains. I may put it all in two of those shoebox sized clear bins until my friend can come over to put away properly. She's going to try to come for dinner on night this upcoming week. I know I am spoiled.

I have an antique quilt that I really love but have never used. I'm going to check on its condition, have it cleaned, and then I'm going to use it. It's white with red embroidery. I feel like my time on earth is running out and I need to use these things. I've started to use mom's china and it makes me very happy. I'm donating my sandwich plates tomorrow. Will be using mom's salad plates in their stead.

Speedy recovery, SubC! The colder weather may be trying to drag it out more. I'm happy for your Buddy though, that was so sweet about how much he works on talking now that he can get his breath easier.

We did take a bunch more boxes of my roommate's books to donate at the library. I'm starting to deal with stuff that got brought indoors from my van when the severe cold weather was coming in. It just got piled wherever. That was utter chaos because somehow the forecast originally sounded like we might have another day to prepare and then we didn't. So it was very rushed. And hunkering down in the earlier storm, then getting out afterward, then getting sick plus a second round of bad frigid temps - all of this made the days pass in a sort of zombie blur.

It wasn't a great time for thinking and planning much less accomplishing things. So we just went for laughs and binged watched my Big Bang Theory DVDs. Roommate was a little more efficient and did knit hats to use up yarn while we watched the show. I wanted to crochet, but the zombie mode meant I was tired and brain fogged and didn't actually start to do so just yet. Perhaps soon. A few years back I offloaded a lot of extra yarn but the one tub I kept I really do like the pretty colors of, and I'd like to crochet a granny afghan to donate to church, which should be doable. Easy units and easy to store while it's being done, portable too for places like doctor's waiting room, etc.

I have a lot of computer and paperwork to catch up on too, and I'm making some inroads on that. Some of that overlaps with decluttering office supplies and so on in the bedroom.

We still have some Christmas lights up, lol. It was a way to have cheerfulness during the dreary arctic time. I'm hoping to switch it out to LED Valentine's lights soon. Amazing how some little thing like that can lift the mood - and those tiny light sets don't take up a bunch of extra room to store. We also have St. Pat's, Easter, July 4th, etc.

Wonder what is keeping everybody.

I finally got all of the Christmas stuff put away. It's been hard with a 4 y.o. And Covid. I'm still sick!

Found another thing to get rid of.

Grateful that buddy's surgery went well! Sorry you are all so sick!

Cm I'm glad your roommate is working on her books! Sorry to hear you've been sick.

TLYounger I don't remember you right off the bat but I'm glad you are here! Please post!

I have two big bags to go to goodwill and I've reserved a car! Planning to get this out on Sunday. Last few weekends have not worked out due to weather or laziness. One or the other.

Bean is now sick.
He can go home January 31, I think.
I am so tired. I have another sub lined up for Friday, but not the following week. I will definitely have to be out again on Tuesday, but if he feels better and hasn't had a fever for 24 hours school policy is he can come to preschool on Wednesday and Friday. - which explains why we currently have five teachers out sick - the best guidance I can find is people are contagious for ten days after onset of symptoms, possibly 14 days after exposure.

Buddy is home, off his pain medication, happy and chatty! The eating difficulties he had before surgery are gone.

I found a pair of snowman mugs to get rid of when I was looking for a small bowl for Bean.

Hi CM,

Thanks for popping in.

Buddy has all his tubes out but still has air in his chest cavity that shouldn't be there - another X-ray tomorrow.

Bean is still healthy, we are still sick. I'm putting a mask on and dropping Bean and plans for my sub at school tomorrow.

He misses his parents so much. ?

You should see him grin when they send pictures of Buddy though! And Buddy talks now! He wasn't making sounds before except wheezing or crying, but now it's not so hard to breathe, he has a whole range of coos and shrieks!

One day at a time.

Glad for good news on Buddy. Sorry about the covid. I'm just getting over it myself. Thought my shot from October would protect me longer. But I got a bad load of it dumped on me. It was a week ago Monday at the gym. Roommate and I had gone to a different branch and I was looking where various machines were, and encountered this chick doing lunges over a fairly wide area and coughing up a storm, no attempt to cover her mouth. I immediately retreated from that area but apparently not quickly enough. Very maddening. Today I feel much better. It is such a frustrating disease though, and I wish it had never come into existence. I want to find more nutritional things to boost my immunity.

Roommate's book downsizing is still ongoing and now that I'm well I'll be able to do more with the space cleared. We've been stalled in getting donations out because of my illness and the frigid weather here. Spring can't come soon enough for me.

Buddy is doing well.

Dh and I have Covid.

Bean can't go home.

SubC, been thinking about Buddy. Glad to hear things went well.

We are in for another round of bitter cold the next few days. Yuck. But it doesn't sound like there will be an ice storm or blizzard this time.

Hello!

Happy New Year! I have an appointment now, but I will post...something soon! 🙂

Buddy is out of surgery and in the ICU for monitoring. The surgery apparently went well.

Oooh sorry about the dog, Lila! I hope he's doing better.

SubC I am thinking of you and your family and the surgeons.

I finished my evals today, too, SubC. I had only three and they were a bugaboo. I spent Friday, part of Saturday, part of Sunday, and today and finally got through them. Truly dreadful.

Cm how are you holding up in the weather?

Not much to report here. I'm showered and the dishwasher is running. Time to go to bed.

Evaluations are done.
Counter is clean again.
Laundry is caught up.
We are preparing for "operation hospital".

Oh Lila! I'm so sorry about your dog? What happened?

Mr. Kitty was expensive, but not that kind of expensive. I'm glad you have insurance!

Mr.kitty is not fully recovered btw - his incision is still draining and he should probably have another round of antibiotics, but as long as he is acting like he feels fine (he is) I'm just going to keep cleaning it and letting him fight on his own.

I am just puttering through my evaluations. Bean was going to come out sledding today, but his parents decided they want to keep the family in full quarantine pre surgery so he is not coming and also I am not going there tomorrow. Suddenly I have plenty of time to get my school work prepped - now I just have to try to not get lazy and put it off.

I am not really trying to make progress in January - just keep up with laundry, dishes, and counter, and get some exercise. I'm rereading sone of my vast collection of children's books as escapism, so I may purge a few more of those. Mostly ones that seem dated or bland. - reclaiming shelf space 1/4" at a time, lol!

I have a few I never read - just finished "tween" book one of my kids left behind from the days when I could not keep up with their reading - and it was really good . Also it is a trilogy, so now I have the other two in my cart at an online used book seller. If they are still there at the end of the month (after I get paid), I may order them just as a pick me up to get through winter.

What a day I had yesterday. I got zero decluttering or cleaning done. Instead I spent all day into the evening with my dog in the vet. It ended up he needed surgery. He is still there. They think he will be alright. It was so scary, I feel completely drained. I am extremely thankful I did not cancel my pet insurance 2 weeks ago when the premium went up. I was seriously considering it. But this is thousands and thousands of dollars so I am glad now I have the insurance.

Will be recovering today.

hellooooo!

I'm back after a very full work week. I have two days off with nothing scheduled but being home and cleaning etc. I did get my pedicure, which was so nice! I also dropped off my donations and box of books.

And, I have been decluttering my office, which had started to look a lot like my bedroom, which is unacceptable. I am not counting anything from my office in my Tallies, but, I gave away two games and a bulletin board and got a big stand moved into someone else's space (since it is theirs), and was given a nice little cabinet which I cleaned and am putting keep items in instead of them being in piles on surfaces.

I will continue making my office a better space, I did order some little containers/desk drawer organizers because the drawer is awful! Looking forward to making it neat.

Today I did some reading and study. Have the first load of laundry in the wash. Made breakfast and coffee.

Hoping to add to all the Tallies today and tomorrow!

Nice seeing you all here posting!